NATO shifts to policy of containing Russia - diplomat

MOSCOW, June 30. /TASS/. The decisions adopted at the meeting of NATO defence ministers shows that the alliance has shifted from the policy of partnership to the policy of containing Russia, Russia’s NATO envoy Alexander Grushko said on Tuesday. "This meeting became an evidence that NATO is shifting from the policy of partnership to the policy of containing Russia," Grushko said during a video link-up between Moscow and Brussels. "Regrettably, this line is confirmed in the sphere of military construction and military planning." "This is the way all technical decisions adopted at the NATO council meeting should be interpreted," he said. "They confirmed plans to set up by the end of the year coordinating headquarters in Poland, Romania and Bulgaria. They also said that NATO was looking at establishing additional headquarters, according to media reports, in Greece, Hungary and Slovakia." The Russian diplomat also drew attention to United States’ announced plans to deploy 250 units of heavy weapons and artillery in six countries. "This is a new quality of the military political situation in Europe," Grushko said. "What we have repeatedly warned about is now taking place: the policy orientation that was declared by NATO as a key vector of security policy for the foreseeable perspective is being fixed in purely military decisions. And these decisions will generate a hostile policy towards Russia." "And this is the way things really are. And all this is taking place on the backdrop of claptrap anti-Russian rhetoric," he added. Read more